The Development of a Drinking-Specific Compensatory Health Beliefs Scale

Abstract

The present study sought to investigate the applicability of the Compensatory Health Belief (CHB) model in relation to drinking by developing and validating the Drinking-Specific Compensatory Health Beliefs (CHBs) Scale in adults between the ages of 18 and 29 living in the United States. In phase 1, a pool of 41 items was administered to 293 undergraduate students. An Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was used to construct the Drinking-Specific CHBs Scale, which consists of 13 items that encompass four different factors—physical activity, no consumption of other drugs, amount of alcohol consumed in future, and rest. In phase 2, a Confirmatory factor Analysis (CFA) with 272 M-Turk workers demonstrated that the four-factor model had adequate model fit indices and adequate reliability estimates. In phase 3, convergent and discriminant validity of the Drinking-Specific CHBs Scale was assessed by examining its relationship with other measures in a sample of 222 M-Turk workers. As expected, the Drinking-Specific CHBs Scale was positively correlated with substance use subscale from original CHBs Scale and negatively correlated with drinking refusal self-efficacy. Contrary to expectations, the Drinking-Specific CHBs scale was negatively and significantly correlated with two aspects from the Protective Behavioral Strategies Scale—serious hard reduction and manner of drinking. Limiting/stopping drinking was unrelated. Comparison between drinkers' and abstainers' showed higher endorsement of drinking-specific CHBs among drinkers in comparison to t non-drinkers. Thus, results of phase 3 indicate that there was evidence for both convergent and discriminant validity. Limitations and future directions of this study are discussed. To conclude, the present study provides a unique contribution to the field of alcohol research and our understanding of the cognitive processes involved when we apply the use of CHBs to drinking.